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Boardman man gets 6 months in rape case
The defendant was originally charged with three rape counts.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Boardman man charged with raping a teenage boy between June 2002 and June 2004 has been sentenced to six months in Mahoning County Jail on a misdemeanor charge.
Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the half-year jail term Thursday on Darryl L. Adams, 44, of Glenwood Avenue, on the reduced charge of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, to which Adams had earlier pleaded guilty.
Adams, who was an hour late for his sentencing, was immediately jailed on that charge.
On two misdemeanor assault counts to which Adams pleaded guilty, the judge imposed a six-month suspended jail sentence. On those reduced counts, he also placed Adams on two years of probation after he leaves jail.
The judge also imposed a $1,000 fine, with $500 suspended, on each of the three charges and ordered Adams to pay the costs of prosecution.
The three rape counts, with which Adams was originally charged, were first-degree felonies that would have carried a three- to 10-year prison sentence for each count, which could have been stacked consecutively for a total of 30 years. The boy was between the ages of 14 and 16 when the offenses allegedly occurred.
Dawn Cantalamessa, assistant county prosecutor, said Adams used his status as a youth pastor in the boy’s church to take advantage of the teen.
Adams had entered an Alford plea to the misdemeanor charges, meaning he pleaded guilty but maintained his factual innocence, his lawyer, Dennis DiMartino explained.
“I plead guilty to these greatly reduced misdemeanors because I was afraid that, even though I am innocent, a jury might still find me guilty,” Adams told the judge.
Adams and Cantalamessa agreed last year to allow Adams to take a polygraph test that would have allowed all charges to be dropped if he passed it. But Adams arrived at the test site in a state of anxiety and couldn’t take the test, DiMartino said.
Adams will be sentenced July 31 in Akron on unrelated federal tax fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty. Adams was charged with filing false tax returns for clients.
milliken@vindy.com